Ban Gill Nets on the Chesapeake

[Caribbean Soul]

Please Sign Petition to Ban Nets in the Chesapeake Bay

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Many of you may be aware of the rampant problem with illegal gill netting of striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay. Literally tons and tons of fish, many breeding stock fish, are being netting illegally and sold out of state. This is a big problem for Maryland and the Striped Bass population as a whole. It is estimated that 75% of all East Coast stripers spawn in the Chesapeake and the illegal netting is having a big impact on the population of these fish along the entire coast.

There is a grass roots effort in Maryland to support a petition that calls for the ban of commercial nets in the Chesapeake Bay. This is not an anti-Commercial fishing initiative, but an effort to ban nets. Nets are indiscriminate and can kill thousands of fish in a single set. Maryland has a long-standing tradition on the Bay and is an important part of the social and economic fabric of many local communities within Maryland. The goal is to ban nets in the Chesapeake with hopes that commercial fisherman will develop a robust and thriving hook-and-line commercial fishery.

Please sign the following petition and spread the word to other anglers. It does not matter if you live in another state. Stripers do not know how to read a map and know no state boundaries.

http://www.petitiononline.com/yrrejmaj/petition.html

These signatures we help to support the long term viability of the fishery!

Caribbean Soul

40 O'Neil Jones

Chesapeake Bay Built

[prowlersfish]

Maybe if MD had a short season like Va there would be more fish ?

[Caribbean Soul]

If we had less gill nets there would definetly be more fish.

If you dont agree with the petition, then do not sign it, simple as that.

Caribbean Soul

40 O'Neil Jones

[Tower Todd]

I live near Puget Sound in WA State and there has recently been an effort to remove derelict gillnets that were lost. Approx 1200 derelict gill nets have been recovered and approx 1200 more have been indentified and are too deep for divers to recover and the group doing the removals have run out of funding. Some of the nets removed are estimated as being over 50 years old. These are monofilament nets that keep on killing even though there is no evidence of them on the surface. At one net location, there were over 2' deep of fish and crab skeletal remains under the net. These nets have killed millions of marine birds, fish, crabs and other sea life.

While Washington has not yet tried to ban gill nets, currently there is a proposal to make marking the net with the owner's information and a requirement to report the position and time of the net if it becomes lost so that it can be removed promptly. It is amazing how much resistance this simple requirement is facing from the commercial fishing lobby, although I have contact several of my friends who run gill nets and they all agree with the change.

Gill nets are a highly destructive type of fishing here and many are opposed to this type of gear. There some alternatives being run in test fisheries that look very promising and will hopefully allow more native fish to survive and the commercial fleet to remain prosperous.

If you would like any of the scientific data showing the kills of one single net, let me know and I'll be happy to share it with you. I'm sure that there must be derelict nets in Chesapeake Bay doing the same things.

Todd

[yottyboy]

While I agree with you, a ban won't stop the damn poachers.

[Stebo]

Signed the petition on a local NJ forum.